152 TEMPSKYA. 
vesting coat of carbonaceous matter of js to 34; inch in thickness, 
such, ¢.g., as is represented in a woodcut on page 178 of Fitton’s 
paper. The largest specimen is described as having a length of 
9 feet. My attention has been drawn by Mr. Carruthers to this 
coaly covering in certain specimens of Zempskya Schimperi, which 
he has himself examined im situ in the Isle of Wight; he is of 
opinion that the coal may be looked upon as the carbonized remains 
of some peripheral or external tissues, the more internal portions 
having been more or less perfectly preserved by mineralization. 
No doubt we may regard the coal as the carbonized remnants of 
some external tissues, but there hardly seems any adequate reason 
for concluding that the tissues, thus reduced to a condition of 
coal or lignite, were originally of a different nature to those 
underlying structures which have been partially preserved in 
the process of fossilization. Corda’ figures and describes four 
species of Zempskya, but it is by no means easy, from an inspection 
of his figures, to grasp the points of difference on which the 
specific characters were founded. He considers 7. Schimperi to 
consist simply of a mass of roots and petioles imperfectly preserved. 
Dunker’ refers to specimens of the same plant from North Germany 
as representing the stem of some unknown Monocotyledon. 
In a later work Mantell*® quotes Robt. Brown’s opinion that the 
structure of Endogenites erosa suggests an approach to the Cycadee. 
Cotta’s* figure of what he calls Porosus marginatus shows what 
are no doubt numerous small roots, and apparently a few petiole (?) 
axes. 
The specimen figured by Schenk’ was found in the Hastings 
Sands of Neundorf near Hannover, and is regarded by him as 
identical with Mantell’s specimens from the English Weald. This 
writer prefers to look upon Zempskya Schimperi as an imperfect 
specimen of part of a complete stem, and not merely a mass of 
roots and petioles as described by Corda; he recognizes the fern 
character of the vascular bundles. Schenk speaks of the numerous 
small and circular vascular bundles as surrounded by sclerenchy- 
Flor. Vorwelt, pp. 81-88, pls. lviii. and lix. 
Wealdenbildung, p. 17. 
Geol. Exeurs. I. Wight, p. 288. 
Dendrolithen, pl. viii. figs. 4 and 5. 
Paleeontographica, vol. xix. pls. xlii. and xliii. 
ao fF 8 YH 
